An international tender for the appointment of a consulting firm to prepare the part-privatization plan intended to lead to a 30 percent sale of PPC, the Public Power Corporation, has been cancelled and relaunched as a result of excessive remuneration demands by bidders and lengthy time periods that would be required by them to submit their proposals, sources said.

A price ceiling, along with revisions to certain terms, have been added to the revised tender, which was relaunched by PPC’s board on December 19 after it decided to cancel the initial effort a couple of days earlier.

The tender’s relaunch has raised questions as to why the new details had not been anticipated and included in the initial effort. Their inclusion, alone, of course, would not have ensured success for the part-privatization of PPC. The process is largely dependent on the country’s political developments.

At this stage, early elections appear most likely, and the main opposition party, leftist Syriza, ahead by several percentage points in various polls, insists it opposes privatizations. Early elections will be called if the 300-seat Greek Parliament’s MPs fail to elect a President – a ceremonial position – in today’s third and final round of voting. The results of voting in the first and second rounds strongly suggest a new President will not be elected.

According to sources, the bidding consulting firms demanded fees of between 3.5 million and four million euros for their services, while the time they would require to deliver their studies was as much as six months long. A price ceiling of about one million euros and a much tighter time schedule have been added to the relaunched tender’s terms, sources added.

PPC officials contended that the decision to cancel and relaunch the tender would ultimately prove beneficial for the part-privatization.